If the Village of Munsey Park needed to be fixed, plowed or mowed in the last two decades, officials turned to utility worker Wilson “Willie” Mead to get the job done.
But on Thursday, Mead put on his green uniform T-shirt and orange vest for the last time to begin a retirement with his wife and two daughters in Edelton, Ga., where he said he plans to start a farm.
“Bees, chickens, a couple cows, something small,” said Mead, 56. “There’s a lot that goes into it, though. For one, you’ve got to research your property and how much you’ll put down, what you’ll grow and what you’ll raise, whether you’ll have to replace crops every year. Things like that.”
In his 23 years with the village, Mead said he’s watched Munsey Park grow up, he said. He’s seen babies born in the village who’ve already graduated college, read stories to kindergarten classes at Munsey Park Elementary School and played Santa Claus to marines and Veterans of Foreign Wars members during the holidays.
But Superstorm Sandy last year wore him down, Mead said. He said he was among the first in the village sifting through the debris and clearing roadways so emergency response workers and ambulances could send help.
“I was out there for the 95 mile-an-hour winds,” Mead said. “Ain’t no joke, man.”
In the aftermath of the storm, Mead said he met a group of Federal Emergency Management Agency workers from Georgia who carried themselves in the laid-back manner he has come to identify with the South.
Mead’s daughter Victoria, a University of Georgia professor, suggested it would be the perfect place for her father to retire.
So Mead bought a couple of houses located near each other – he said he is in the process of acquiring another – and will head down to the Peach State to enjoy the next chapter of his life.
“The people there are so pleasant,” Mead said. “You think that whole North-South thing is still going on down there? It’s not.”
The son of a farmer and laborer, Mead grew up in California and moved to Pennsylvania at age 16, where he worked on dairy farms before serving in the United States Marine Corps from 1974-79.
After being discharged, Mead worked in demolition and construction before answering a newspaper advertisement seeking a utility worker in the Village of Munsey Park.
“And here we are, 23 years later,” he said.
Mead was with the village during the major snowstorm of 1996, through Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy, but said he embraced the community with a smile despite doing the dirty work that made up his job.
“It was the kind of job where when you got up in the morning, you were happy to go to work,” Mead said. “Most people get up and say, ‘ah, I’ve got to go to work.’ I never had that problem.”
Aside from the farm, Mead has his hobbies. He said he wants to do some traveling, and has steadily built a pretty serious toy collection of military action figures and Batman characters.
But Mead said no matter where he goes after leaving Munsey Park, he won’t forget the bonds he formed with residents he came to know while serving the village.
“It’s been wonderful working out there in the village the last few weeks,” Mead said. “People have come up and said ‘thank you, you’ll be hard to replace, don’t forget about us, we won’t forget about you,’ and it really means a lot. I’ll never forget them, either.”
Mead said he’s just begun to introduce the village to his replacement, Bernie Dunn, but hopes Munsey Park residents show him the same kindness and respect he received over the years.
“My father used to say, ‘Live a righteous life, work hard and it will come to you,’” Mead said. “I used to think, you know, ‘you damn liar,’ but now I see it’s exactly what he said it would be. I really do appreciate the roots I’ve laid here. When people invest time, you learn a lot, and my cup runneth over, dude. My heart and soul will always be here, for sure.”
